muttered. “I just want the same chances other people have. Is that too much to ask?”
We agreed that it wasn’t. We were really very normal people, despite the wings and the curse and the way we were so solitary. I wondered if all monsters were so ordinary in their day-to-day lives, and if I should just go to the General Store and all those other places that sold T-shirts with an image of the Sidwell Monster and explain that we ate breakfast the same as they did, and that my brother was the kindest person on earth and had nothing to do with the thefts or the graffiti. Or at least, I hoped he hadn’t.
“Can you help me pick out a word?” I said to Flash, who was sitting on my brother’s shoulder. The little owl soared to the table. It was clear that whatever had been wrong with his wing had healed. Maybe James wasn’t ready to let him go.
Flash came to peck at the
E,
which, really, was no help at all.
E
was definitely not a word in any language, not even birdspeak. Or maybe it was. I started thinking about words that began with
E. Excellent
and
elephant
and
ever.
“You know you can’t win against me,” James teased.
“Really?” I said with a grin. “Watch.” I put down
extra,
the
X
on a double-word-score space.
As I added up my score, I told James there was a neweditor at the
Sidwell Herald
who wanted to write an article about the orchard and who was Miss Larch’s nephew and seemed to know our mother, but James wasn’t paying attention anymore. His eyes were fixed on what was outside. When I went to the window, I saw why.
No one ever came to our house and now we had our second visitor of the day. Agate was standing in the grass. I’d been avoiding the Halls and I’d kind of forgotten how beautiful she was. She looked like a fairy, as if she had appeared in our world by magic. Her pale hair was pulled back and she wore a black velvet jacket over her black dress. She was barefoot and she seemed out of breath, as if she’d been running.
James looked at her, his changeable eyes a clear, deep green.
Agate held something up in the air. At first I thought it was a copy of the
Sidwell Herald
that Mr. Rose had left behind. But it wasn’t the newspaper. She was waving a white piece of paper with a message for my brother.
Midnight at Last Lake.
My brother had a grin across his face.
He looked like any other person whose wish had come true.
At midnight, I wasn’t asleep. Old houses have noises all their own: mice in the walls, leaves hitting against the roof, footsteps on the attic floor. There was a cricket in my room, chirping away. Usually a cricket song was like a lullaby to me, but tonight it kept me awake. It was a starry night, and bright. There was a filigree of shadows on my wall from outside: tree branches, vines, and then James’s shadow passing by after he went out the window. I thought of how often birds tumbled from their nests, how branches broke, how storms were the worst at this time of year, when you least expected them, when the night seemed so deep and calm. I didn’t try to stop James. My heart lifted to know he was free, at least for a little while. Still, I worried. I knew my mother would be convinced that of all the people in the world, the last person James should be meeting at midnight was Agate Early Hall.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Summer That Wasn’t Like Other Summers
S CHOOL LET OUT THE FOLLOWING WEEK. On the last day, after the books had been turned in and the lockers cleared out, I was walking home alone, wondering what I would do all summer. The weeks stretched out in front of me like blank pieces of paper, with the future unwritten. I heard someone shout my name. I turned to look behind me. Julia. It was impossible to run away, so I stood there, nervous, while she raced over.
“Where’ve you been?” Julia was a little out of breath.
“Nowhere,” I said blankly. “Here.”
I just didn’t see how a friendship could work out, sowhat was the point? I had made the
We agreed that it wasn’t. We were really very normal people, despite the wings and the curse and the way we were so solitary. I wondered if all monsters were so ordinary in their day-to-day lives, and if I should just go to the General Store and all those other places that sold T-shirts with an image of the Sidwell Monster and explain that we ate breakfast the same as they did, and that my brother was the kindest person on earth and had nothing to do with the thefts or the graffiti. Or at least, I hoped he hadn’t.
“Can you help me pick out a word?” I said to Flash, who was sitting on my brother’s shoulder. The little owl soared to the table. It was clear that whatever had been wrong with his wing had healed. Maybe James wasn’t ready to let him go.
Flash came to peck at the
E,
which, really, was no help at all.
E
was definitely not a word in any language, not even birdspeak. Or maybe it was. I started thinking about words that began with
E. Excellent
and
elephant
and
ever.
“You know you can’t win against me,” James teased.
“Really?” I said with a grin. “Watch.” I put down
extra,
the
X
on a double-word-score space.
As I added up my score, I told James there was a neweditor at the
Sidwell Herald
who wanted to write an article about the orchard and who was Miss Larch’s nephew and seemed to know our mother, but James wasn’t paying attention anymore. His eyes were fixed on what was outside. When I went to the window, I saw why.
No one ever came to our house and now we had our second visitor of the day. Agate was standing in the grass. I’d been avoiding the Halls and I’d kind of forgotten how beautiful she was. She looked like a fairy, as if she had appeared in our world by magic. Her pale hair was pulled back and she wore a black velvet jacket over her black dress. She was barefoot and she seemed out of breath, as if she’d been running.
James looked at her, his changeable eyes a clear, deep green.
Agate held something up in the air. At first I thought it was a copy of the
Sidwell Herald
that Mr. Rose had left behind. But it wasn’t the newspaper. She was waving a white piece of paper with a message for my brother.
Midnight at Last Lake.
My brother had a grin across his face.
He looked like any other person whose wish had come true.
At midnight, I wasn’t asleep. Old houses have noises all their own: mice in the walls, leaves hitting against the roof, footsteps on the attic floor. There was a cricket in my room, chirping away. Usually a cricket song was like a lullaby to me, but tonight it kept me awake. It was a starry night, and bright. There was a filigree of shadows on my wall from outside: tree branches, vines, and then James’s shadow passing by after he went out the window. I thought of how often birds tumbled from their nests, how branches broke, how storms were the worst at this time of year, when you least expected them, when the night seemed so deep and calm. I didn’t try to stop James. My heart lifted to know he was free, at least for a little while. Still, I worried. I knew my mother would be convinced that of all the people in the world, the last person James should be meeting at midnight was Agate Early Hall.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Summer That Wasn’t Like Other Summers
S CHOOL LET OUT THE FOLLOWING WEEK. On the last day, after the books had been turned in and the lockers cleared out, I was walking home alone, wondering what I would do all summer. The weeks stretched out in front of me like blank pieces of paper, with the future unwritten. I heard someone shout my name. I turned to look behind me. Julia. It was impossible to run away, so I stood there, nervous, while she raced over.
“Where’ve you been?” Julia was a little out of breath.
“Nowhere,” I said blankly. “Here.”
I just didn’t see how a friendship could work out, sowhat was the point? I had made the
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